Other political outcasts in Rome (such as Sallust) seem to be readier to view the wrongs of empire through the eyes of non-Romans, than writers (such as Livy) who remain relatively snug in the embrace of power.

The Roman historian Sallust, who lived through the Spartacus war, "had a short, sharp way with words," but all that survives of his account today is "a quilt of tiny patches," most of them showing the rebel as an able soldier.